Monday 10 December 2007

Sally Sloane

I found this on Warren Fahey's excellent Australian folklore site. It's the lyrics of a song based on the murder that have travelled all the way to Australia and were sung by Sally Sloane. Her recollections about the song:

"You know there are bits in it I can't remember where her body was tied up in a sack and mangled with many a dreadful wound. The cook, I think, mangled her up and put her in the bag. Her mother dreamt the same dream for three weeks and the neighbour with his pickaxe is part of it too. Anyhow they dug the ground and there they found where she was. "

Link to the lyrics

Link to information about Sally Sloane




3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Howdy. Warren Fahey here. I see you have credited my site - thank you - I thought you should also know that when John Meredith and, later in the 1970s, I recorded the wonderful Sally Sloane, she sang two songs - mixed up - one was Maria Marten and the other was the Red Barn Door. Both our tape collections are in the National Library of Australia Oral History collection. Sally Sloane can be heard singing on my podcasts radio programs - go to http://warrenfahey.com/audio_oz_songs-4.htm There's also another song 'The Old Oak Tree' which might be related to the murder.

PterodromaSolandri said...

Cheers Warren. Big fan of the Australian Folklore Unit site. I have tried to find commercially available Sally Sloane recordings to no avail except the Sharing the Harvest compilation.

Ms. Keeling said...

My great grandfather owned the cottage in the last century, and my mum used to visit and spend time there, even over night. I visited in 2008. My great grandparents are buried in the Polstead churchyard.